A Los Angeles-based nonprofit opened an early childhood center specifically for children whose families are seeking asylum in the United States. This center is one of the only places available where migrant children can play and learn for free.

This was going to be the time, thought the person who knows Hunter Renfroe best.

“I was so excited for him,” Courtney Renfroe said. “I was like, ‘He’s going to have some emotion.’ Who wouldn’t?”

Her husband, she was soon reminded.

He had raised his hands in triumph after turning on a fastball from Kenley Jansen with two outs in the ninth inning for a walk-off grand slam May 5 against the Dodgers. A man would have to be dead to not exult in such a moment, or when greeting his excited teammates at home plate.

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But an hour later he walked from the Padres clubhouse as if nothing special had happened that afternoon.

To be entirely accurate, he was a little excited about something.

“It’s ‘Game of Thrones’ night,” was the first thing Hunter Renfroe said to his wife.

So now you know how the bear of an outfielder has done it, how he has kept playing baseball better and better while some others have not, including some whom fans have seemed to favor and his own team has seemed to put in better position to succeed.

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“He’s a minimalist, I would like to say,” Courtney said. “It doesn’t take much to make that boy happy.”

Basically, just hunting and hitting.

“I have hunting season and baseball season,” said Courtney, who has been with Hunter since he was in 10th grade and she was in ninth. “If I want to see Hunter, I have to hunt. That’s our time together.”

When Renfroe is hunting in the woods near his Mississippi home, he’s often watching videos of hitting on his phone. His own swing as well as others.

“That’s your time to sit there and relax and get away from this but also to think about what’s going on, what’s coming,” he said. “… You’re sitting there for three or four hours. I watch videos. I reflect on the stuff I do well.”

When they’re not waiting for deer, Courtney is feeding baseballs into a machine in the batting cage of the home they renovated last year.

“Normally in the offseason he would take time off,” Courtney said. “This offseason, he hit the ground running. He said, ‘There are things I have to work on.’ He was like, ‘I have to prove myself.’ ”

Yet for the first month of this season he was the odd man out in the Padres outfield, starting just 19 of the team’s first 32 games.

The Padres are enamored with Franmil Reyes’ power and potential to be an all-around hitter, and so the team’s home run leader has started 55 of the team’s 66 games. They have been committed to letting Wil Myers work through his strikeout issues, partly because of past production and partly because of future contact obligations, so Myers has started 54 games. Until he essentially became a bench player in early May, even Manuel Margot started more than Renfroe.

That move with Margot coincided with Renfroe beginning to play more, as Myers moved essentially full time to center field. Renfroe has started 26 of the past 34 games, batting .257/.306/.653 with 12 home runs in 101 at-bats in that span.

For the season, his 10.06 at-bats per home run rank fifth in the majors among those with at least 150 at-bats. His 18 total homers are one fewer than Reyes, in 25 fewer at-bats.

Renfroe might have started at least one more game recently if not for a neck injury suffered while making a diving catch Thursday.

His 12 defensive runs saved since the start of last season rank fifth in the National League among outfielders. His six defensive runs saved as a left fielder in that time rank third in the NL. This season, his seven defensive runs saved rank seventh in the majors, while his 400 innings are 54 fewer than any player with more and 43 fewer than any player in the top 17.

Truth be told, that might be the one thing that does get Renfroe going.

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“I tell my wife I’d rather win a Gold Glove in the outfield than a Silver Slugger at the plate,” he said. “That’s just how I feel. I don’t know if it’s reality, but that’s what I want. I want to prove I’m the best defensive outfielder out there. The hitting stuff will take care of itself.”

When they let him play.

And he does want to play.

“Everybody needs a break here and there for your body’s sake,” he said. “But it helps to see the ball every day and get used to pitching. Absolutely, you see more pitches, you get your rhythm down at the plate more.”

But there are few players more suited to be part of this new kind of Padres team, where the lineup changes daily.

“I don’t think about it too much,” he said. “If my name is in the lineup, I get ready to go just like everybody else.”

Take it from the person who knows him best, he means it.

“He’s just very mellow all the time,” Courtney Renfroe said. “He has the best heart of anyone. He always takes others ahead of himself. Always.”

FIBA will look at adjusting travel demands on teams at the next World Cup, after this tournament in China led to many complaints about the distances that nations participating in the knockout stages had to cover without much time to prepare for games.